Out of 10 Attributes instead of Out of 5

One design change I’m considering is modifying the candidate attributes from 1-5 to ‘out of 10’.

I find quite often I say things like ‘I’d like to give this candidate a 2.5’ or ‘a 4.5’. My sense is that the resolution for 1-5 is too low.

The major rationale for a 1-5 system is it forces significant differences between candidates, but I think a 1-10 (say) would also allow for a significant difference between any ratings. For example, a 7 or an 8 would still make a significant difference in terms of game play.

Mapping 1-5 to 1-10 is a little trickier than you might think at first. This is because 3 in 1-5 has no integer equivalent in 1-10 – it would rather be 5.5. This is because it is moving from an odd number of slots (5) to an even number (10). If using a 1-10, my sense is to simply multiply existing values from campaigns using the previous system by 2 (no reworking of campaigns would be required, they would be automatically mapped to the new values by the game engine). So, going from the old 1-5 to 1-10, it would be 1 -> 2, 2 -> 4, 3 -> 6, 4 -> 8, 5 -> 10.

Another possibility would be to move to a 0-10 system. Because there are actually an odd number of slots, the mid-point would be 5. (This has the added advantage of mapping very straightforwardly onto a percentage system (0-100) for deciding the chances of certain things occurring.) The conversion from campaigns using the 1-5 system here would be multiply by 2 and then possibly minus by 1. If doing the minus by one, then it’s 1 -> 1 (but there is the possibility of giving a lower score, 0), 2 -> 3, 3 -> 5, 4 ->7, 5-> 9 (but there is the possibility of giving a higher score, 10). Alternately, just multiply by two, so 1 -> 2, 2 -> 4, 3 -> 6, 4 -> 8, 5 -> 10. In this way, there’s still the possibility of having a completely average score for an attribute (5), all existing 1’s become 2’s, but campaign designers could make it even lower (1) or even lower still (0). This could actually allow for making minor parties even less powerful than they are now, relative to the major parties.

If this happens, it will probably be implemented for PMI and PI first.

4 thoughts on “Out of 10 Attributes instead of Out of 5”

I think 1-10 would be better. It would be helpful if the score also had a word associated with it, that can be seen when you hover the mouse over the number. For instance,
10 – Legendary
9 – Exceptional
8 – Great
7 – Good
6 – Above Average
5 – Average
4 – Below Average
3 – Bad
2 – Abysmal
1 – Hopeless